Fall and Other Ones
by Dionaea007
Summary: Few drabbles and short one-shots. Various themes. It's mostly some general Superman universe, but I added some parts more related to the movie.
1. w100 Have You Ever Met an Alien? 2,12,11

**Have You Ever Met an Alien?**

People around him were laughing, most of them drunk or at least tipsy. Someone had asked a ridiculous drunken question and now they were all joking about it, coming with more and more ridiculous answers.

Clark wasn't amused, and it wasn't just because of his inability to get drunk.

He left his previous company. Few seconds later and instead of busy MU campus he was standing on a quiet hill miles away looking at the stars.

Six words echoed in his mind. _Have you ever met an alien?_

"I don't remember meeting anyone who wasn't," he whispered to no one.


	2. w100 Fall 2,12,11

**Fall**

The land far under him, the sky, the open space. He was familiar with it; yet this was a rare experience. He could hardly recall the last time he'd been falling. It must've been decades, maybe longer.

He'd fought till he could. He d'lost. There was nothing left to do.

If he'd ever been morbid enough to wonder, what end would he chose for himself, it would be probably this.

He'd always loved flying, but even flying is a choice. He'd spent all his life doing choices not to know the other side of that glittering coin. There was a freedom in the inevitability of a fall.


	3. w100 The Monstrosity of Time 2,12,11

**The Monstrosity of Time**

He watched clouds moving slowly morphing their forms. It was hard to trace the change until wind suddenly become stronger.

Very strong, clouds were flying trough the sky like crazy, but he couldn't feel it.

The world was vibrating and he was alone. He heard his own heart beating, but no one else's. First time in years he couldn't reach his parents.

Scared, he ran. Everything was slowing until even bees froze in air. This was familiar.

He stopped reaching his mother.

"Clark, where have you been all day?"

The whole day… it appeared just like a moment to him.


	4. w100 Widow 2,12,11

**Widow**

"How are you holding?"

"Try to guess. My husband is missing. Only two things can make it better, bring him back or at least leave me alone."

"I can, but it won't help. I'm not who you are angry at. Don't suppress it."

"I'm not!"

"Look, Superman saved millions, but don't feel obliged not to be angry at him. He hadn't helped you. Millions strangers alive still don't help if you miss someone from that 304 people killed by fragment of that meteor, or one missing man."

"You're wrong."

"Am I?"

_Yes, it's 305. That idiot, haven't saved himself either._

* * *

**_AN: I hope it has been readable as my English still have gaps (a lot of them). I know there are mistakes, the problem is, that I don't know where. Feel free to let me know. _**


	5. w750 For the Sake of the Child 4,6,11

**For the Sake of the Child**

"I'm pregnant."

"Oh."

Lois was waiting patiently for him to come with a more coherent answer. She appeared so calm. They might know each other only shortly, but for some reason she let him see more of herself than anyone else and not just speaking in terms of naked flesh. He knew her posture was no act. She wasn't nervous because of how he could react. With not a little sadness Richard acknowledged that it was hardly because of absolute trust. She just wasn't expecting anything from him. Not even this bitter knowledge, however, saved him from saying the wrong words.

"So I guess we have to rethink our break-up now… ….for the sake of the child." His voice sounded pathetically needy. What was worse, he was lying. He never wanted their relationship to end and now he was clutching a straw.

A really weak one for that matter.

"No."

He sighed, "Look, I would never try to force you to anything, but you have to think how it'd be growing-up between two homes-"

"Richard," she interrupted him in firm voice. At least she didn't sound angry, more like tired." Do you really think it's fair to put a whole weight of a relationship on shoulders of one little person?"

"No."

"I thought so. I've seen marriages with two martyrs and children that have to grow up thinking they're reason for someone's bungled life. It's no fun."

He nodded.

"I won't try to keep you away from the child if you want to be a part of its life."

"I want."

"That's it for now then."

She was about to leave, but he reached for her arm.

"Lois, I know this complicates a lot of things for you, well, for both of us, so I hope this won't come out wrongly, but I'm happy about the baby. I… …I just wanted to tell you," he finished a little lamely.

"I'm glad you did." She smiled for the first time since she entered his office.

This time there really wasn't anything left to say. When she turned and walked to a door he was left with an uneasy feeling that he just missed something precise.

She reached for the door knob, but then hesitated. She turned towards him again with a thoughtful expression, and then leaned against the glass door that separated them from their curious colleagues. Richard spotted at least two of them staring openly towards his office. They'd learn the news soon enough, he thought unhappily. There was no way this would stay a secret forever. He would've sighed, but he was afraid Lois might misunderstand the gesture. She was watching him intently and he wanted to ask what this was about, but he felt that he have to give her space. Even if it was a little scary, silence and Lois usually didn't mix together.

"You was born under a lucky star, you know." She started quietly after some time. In contrast to her previous calm attitude her voice sounded hesitant. "I'd like to be such a bad liar, when it counts."

"Huh…" he really wasn't following.

"Earlier, when you told me that we could go back together because of the baby, you lied. That wasn't the main reason, was it?"

"No," he answered in a whisper. He wouldn't be able to make his voice sound normal. His heart was beating at least twice its normal pace and he was holding his breath. After their break-up they'd reminded civil to each other, but he could count the day a feast if she so much as exchanged a sentence not related to work with him. Now he couldn't help but hope…

"I haven't thought you would want to have anything with me after the way we broke up," Lois's words were barely hearable even in the quiet office.

"You've been wrong."

She broke the eye contact looking at the floor for a moment and Richard waited, more nervous than before. Finally, she met his gaze again.

"You know, I like you, Richard, and I've missed you during last few days and I might give us a second chance if you wanted. Just make sure it's for a right reason." With that she literally run from his office leaving him grinning from ear to ear.

Life was good. He was going to be a father and he'd been just given a second chance. He knew he wouldn't mess up. He loved her, and that's the best reason to be with someone after all.


	6. w1050 Noises 4,6,11

**Noises**

Clark was enjoying one of not so common evenings when the world was able to take care of itself. He was sitting on a couch in the apartment he'd shared with Lois for more than a year now; clad in his most comfortable flannel shirts and worn jeans. There was a half-drunken glass of bear in front of him and a book in his hands. He was pretending to be reading. Not that the book wasn't interesting, quite the opposite, but you can hardly let yourself lost in an imaginary world, when there is such a drama happening right in front of you in reality. Even if the main actress glared at you dangerously every time she cached you looking.

However, Clark didn't need to look to track the latest development. He could hear it all. The typing and the deleting. The nails biting. Standing up and making furious rounds all around the room. Again sitting down. Putting something out of a purse. A pencil tapping against the table. The pencil being bitten, the pencil being thrown across the room. And at last the most dramatic –the stillness. The end was close.

For the last hour Lois had been trying to finish an article, work that should have taken her no more than ten minutes. To make things worse Jason was staying bay his friend and Lois had been looking forward to spend both night and evening alone just two of them. Clark would've offered help, but he knew Lois long enough to read her nonverbal signals. The one he was getting now was an equivalent of 'Don't you even dare to comment on it!' Besides, he knew it wouldn't last long.

And the breaking point really came in no time. Clark's senses and speed of his perception allowed him to spot changes in Lois's posture before it happened.

In one furious movement Lois grabbed her notebook and threw it across the room. Luckily for her still unfinished article her husband's superhuman reflexes prevented what would've been a case of violence on an innocent machine.

Clark just smiled with sympathy and put the computer in a safe distance from Lois's reach.

Lois had always considered herself able to work in any environment. In busy bullpen, in the noise of helicopters taking off, even in the middle of a crossfire. At least till today, when an unstoppable enemy came in a form of their neighbors' party.

„How can you stand it?" she asked glaring hatefully at a wood decked floor of their apartment from where the music continued to flow. It wasn't even so loud, but to tell that it wasn't her favorite style was putting it really mildly.

"It's not that bad."

"Not that bad? I can't think, I can't work, I'm hardly able to be even appropriately angry! It's so damn annoying."

"Come on, I take you somewhere where it´s more quiet." Clark took a step towards her.

"I don't want to go outside, it's cold there." Argued Lois in a childish voice and went one step back so the distance between them stayed almost the same.

Clark came closer again, "I can fly us to Australia."

"Too, warm." Lois again flinched from him.

"Lois." Clark rolled his eyes, but couldn't help smiling

"I'm not going to run away from my own apartment just because they have a lousy taste in music!" To emphasize her point she stamped few times strongly on the floor. The only effect was that the music became even louder.

Clark laughed.

"Don't laugh, Smallville. You will miss me when they put me in the prison because of the murders." Her tone was light, joking; but her eyes gave away that she was exhausted and it wasn't even seven p.m.

"That's what I'm trying to avoid here, honey. Come on, I'm sure there is a place on this earth able to reach even Lane's high standards of appropriate weather. Besides, we don't have to go outside at all. I'm sure there have to be at least one nice café opened somewhere. Go get dressed, you can finish it there. "

"Forget the article, it's just a filling piece, I'll finish it tomorrow." Lois sighed.

Clark came over and hugged her. Despite the annoying music, he felt Lois relaxing.

"Now that sounds promising, just you and me and…" Clark didn't finish the sentence, because the apartment under them became quiet. It lasted only seconds, however, till the first round of drunken singing echoed.

They were miles away, floating in the air before Lois had even time to properly swear.

There wasn't any music up there. No people speaking, dogs barking not even cars. Just a wind. At first they were quiet. Lois enjoying relative silence and Clark steadied beating of Lois's heart.

"Are we still in Metropolis? " asked Lois finally looking down. There was a city under them; its tiny orange lights looked like embers.

"Technically no, but we are above it."

"Thank you, Clark," she whispered and kissed him gently.

"Believe me; I have to thank you more. You are doing it for my every day."

She arched her eyebrows. "Really, how that I can't remember the last time I took you flying?"

"What about yesterday's night."

She took one hand from his shoulder and smacked him, "Be serious, Smallville."

"Hey, you started!"

"But I am me."

He smirked, but then became somber again. "I've meant it, Lois. You take notices away."

He kissed her on the top of her head. 'You are the best thing that had ever happened to me' could've been heard in his tone, even if he didn't voice the words.

"Noises? When you can't..."

"When I hear someone I can't save, or just when I'm not in the mood to listen thirty people singing off key in their showers. All I have to do is just focus on your heartbeat."

She put her head close to his heart, so she could heard him too. And smell, and enjoy the warmth that was protecting her from harsh night air. Everything in one great package. She smiled, then smirked, her eyes lighted up with a mischievous gleam.

"Clark?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you listen to my heart when my mother holds one of her endless speeches too?"

"Ehm…"


	7. w300 Restless Sleeper 4,6,11

**Restless Sleeper**

No one had figured from where the crazy idea about outside-of-office bonding traveled to Perry's head, but him being who he was staff of Daily Planet unable to come with a believable excuse found themselves in sleeping bags surrounding a dying fire far from the comfort civilized life in Metropolis offered. At least the night was warm.

It was way past the midnight; bud Richard White was unable to fall asleep. His sight traveled from stars to the fire and then it rested on Lois lying nearby. The sleeping bag beside her would once have been his, now it belonged to another man even if he appeared for some reason absent.

Lois was asleep, but her wild tossing and turning spoke that her rest was anything but peaceful. Richard watched her for a while before he sensed another presence near him. He turned and saw that Gil, one of the few colleagues he counted as friends, was awake too. There was a thoughtful expression on his face. The direction of his look betrayed that Richard hadn't been the only one who'd been watching Lois.

"She was always a restless sleeper, I never saw her tranquil through the night," Richard commented in a whisper, before he turned his attention back to his ex-fiancée, barely in time to see a figure approaching.

Clark Kent appeared as if he came out of nowhere. He looked around and in surprisingly un-klutz movement slid into the bag beside Lois and put one hand around her moving form. She relaxed immediately, snuggling closer to him and then getting almost motionless. Even in a dim light provided by the small fire and stars a newfound smile on her face was clearly visible.

Richard really hated the pity he knew he would've seen if he turned and looked at Gil's face.


End file.
